THE CHURCH OF

To the Church in Jerusalem...to the Church of the Thessalonians...to the Church at Corinth....in Ephesus...in Syrma... The list could go on. It seems that when God had a word for a church, it was the church of the city. This seems to imply that God doesn’t see the individual churches apart for their calling to a city. That is not to exclude the individual identity of each congregation, but each congregation should see themselves as a part of the City Church.

Does that mean that the local church has no specific place? Does that mean that we should only be focusing on trying to gather the church into one large family and forget the local individual churches of which ours is one? We can answer that simply by looking at how God defines the church as a body. Looking at the physical body we notice that the physical body has different parts. These parts function together, but look different and function differently, but still are a part of the same body. Each congregation has differing members. The members are not alike. They look different, have different likes, have differing gifts, but are all part of the same congregational body.

In the city, we are different. We bring different things to the city church. Each church brings their gifting and contributions to the city. One congregation ministers in one specific area that the others don’t. Each congregation has different anointings that other congregations don’t. Each congregation is a part of the body of Christ, but each will have different functions than the rest. This isn’t a call to merge and lose our specific identity. It is to keep our individuality because we have something to contribute that other churches don’t. They have something to give us that we need.

We also recognize that to impact a city with the love of God will require the cooperation of all the life giving churches. It is too impossible for one congregation. Therefore, we feel that it is necessary to provide a place for fellowship and prayer for the pastors in the city of Hayward.

MONTHLY FELLOWSHIP: To facilitate that we meet monthly for fellowship. The objective of our meeting is to develop relationship with other pastors and ministry leaders in the Hayward area, to encourage each other in our work for the Kingdom of God, and to lift up the name of Jesus. These monthly fellowships are held in different locations each month. We will attempt to keep this website updated to the current location, but if it isn’t posted, call the office of Community of Grace for information (510) 783-8062.